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Here’s the blurb for one of the most anticipated science fiction novels of next year, Mappalujo by Jeff Noon & Steve Beard. Jeff is, of course, well known for his groundbreaking novel Vurt published in 1993, (which was followed by a sequel, Pollen, in 1995 and a prequel, Nymphomation, in 1997) and this is surely going to be counted amongst his best works to date. Prepare to enter the world of Lujo, a city caught somewhere between reality and a dimension which may/may not be real…

“Mappalujo is a shared dream set in the twilight realm of Lujo, a city dominated by the surreal cartoons and artificially bred toy creatures of the Zeno Entertainment Company. Since the company’s founder died in mysterious circumstances, Zeno’s visions have become darker and even more sinister. An identity-altering drug is leaking onto the streets. For a few brilliant, flickering moments users are transformed into famous or infamous celebrities, only to find that the other side of fame lies in the gutter, or in death.

The novel follows a lowly salesman, an information gatherer, a private detective and a teenage psychic. Four stories, four people – each of them connected to the bizarre fate of Zeno, its bitter heir, and a hostile faery spirit named Mama Lujo.

Here is one city’s epic tale told in seventy-five chapters, each influenced by a different iconic figure. From Lewis Carroll to Patti Smith, from Sigmund Freud to Raymond Chandler and Sophie Calle – the ghosts haunting the streets of Lujo are all conjured from the collective unconscious of the modern media age.

Mappalujo is baroque science fiction, tumbling with ideas and images, exuberant to the extreme. It documents a world only a few metres and a few minutes away from our own – yet stranger by far.”

Preorder your copy today – copies are already being snapped up so get one while you still can!

Reviews are still coming in of the debut volume of The Spectral Book of Horror Stories edited by Mark Morris – case in point is this latest one from DLS reviews, written by Chris Hall – hop over to the site by clicking HERE to read his verdict.

THE SPECTRAL BOOK OF HORROR STORIES – PRICES INCLUDE POSTAGE!

£12.50 UK

£15 EU

$30 US & RoW

Don’t forget that the second volume, which Mark is working on at the moment, will be with us later this year – you can preorder that one below (and there’s also a special preorder option for those attending Fantasy Con 2015 in Nottingham – save on postage!).

THE SPECTRAL BOOK OF HORROR STORIES vol 2 PREORDER –PRICES INCLUDE POSTAGE!

£12.50 UK

£15 EU

$30 US & RoW

FANTASYCON 2015 PREORDERS

If you’re going to be attending FantasyCon 2015 this year in Nottingham, UK, where this book will be launched, then why not take advantage of this offer of preordering your copy and then picking it up at the event? Overseas visitors can save postage and spend what they’ve saved on books and beer!

Mark Morris, editor of this annual anthology, has received over 600 submissions for this already, and the deadline isn’t until June 30th. We have a feeling that this is going to be a good one, more than following the high standard set by the first volume. Even though it’s not available until October this year, given the popularity of the inaugural edition we are putting it on pre-order now for those who would like to secure a copy ahead of time. The prices will be exactly the same as last year. Also, like the first volume, the cover will be by the award-winning Vincent Chong, whose artistic kung-fu is legendary (see his cover for the the first one above).

THE SPECTRAL BOOK OF HORROR STORIES vol 2 – PRICES INCLUDE POSTAGE!

£12.50 UK

£15 EU

$30 US & RoW

FANTASYCON 2015 PREORDERS

If you’re going to be attending FantasyCon 2015 this year in Nottingham, UK, where this book will be launched, then why not take advantage of this offer of preordering your copy and then picking it up at the event? Overseas visitors can save postage and spend what they’ve saved on books and beer!

First, we have Cate Gardner’s new novella The Bureau of Them, due to be published in June and launched at this year’s Edge-Lit event in Derby in July (alongside Mark Morris’ Albion Fay and Stephen Volk’s Leytonstone). Expect a story of Cate’s trademark dark surrealism and slightly-twisted realities, plus a cover from David Chatton-Barker which will be with us in a couple of weeks. In the meantime you can preorder the limited hardback and the unlimited paperback:

Some years ago, Johnny Mains issued this eBook only volume of stories with the subtitle The Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror Stories. Spectral will be reissuing it with new material in paperback in May, with a cover by Les Edwards (see above). Preorder on the buttons below:

We are so looking forward to seeing this volume in print – it has such an incredible ToC, the kind every publisher dreams of. Apart from the authors listed below, the book will also feature a new introduction by Stephen Jones and an Afterword from David A. Sutton, the editors of the volume, and will be rounded off with an index of stories and authors featured in all the original Gollancz Dark Terrors series. It will be available in two formats: limited hardback with cloth and foiled stamped covers wrapped in a dustjacket featuring that absolutely gorgeous painting by Led Edwards shown above; and a paperback edition. It will be published at Halloween 2015, but you can secure a copy of the limited hardback now if you so wish so you don’t miss out – edition size will be 100 signed and numbered copies only.

Anne Billson, film blogger for The Telegraph newspaper, writer, photographer, and appreciator of fine Belgian beers, has this to say about Stephen Volk’s masterful follow-up to his critically-acclaimed Spectral novella Whitstable:

“I am still processing LEYTONSTONE. Wow, what an amazing read. Incredibly evocative of another time and place, also quite weird, sad and VERY scary. Stephen Volk might well have got to the heart of the man, and the fact I enjoy Hitchcock’s film-making and want so badly to like the person who made them makes it all the more unsettling. A tremendous balancing act, and, for me, a real horror story about the dark side of human nature. Bravo!”

Don’t just take Anne’s word for it, why not find out for yourself by preordering your copy today – the book will be available in March.

RICOCHET

by Tim Dry

Tim Dry’s Ricochet is a novella-length blasphemical wedding of fevered edginess, violence, drug-fuelled nightmares, psychedelia, and madness, set in London and Paris, and written in the mould of a collision between Hunter S. Thompson and William Burroughs. Partly a stream of consciousness narrative and partly a morality tale for the end times, it’s a signpost to the apocalypse of the nuclear imagination, the logical implosive endpoint of the Beatnik generation’s experiment. Here lies the carcass of reality in all its rotting, putrid, and fully decomposed glory: it’s what remains of the dreams of the Love Generation, laid bare for all to see.

Ricochet is the first volume in a projected series of novellas based in the same chaotic universe. This one will surprise, enlighten, infuriate, anger and repulse in equal measure.

*

Tim Dry is a writer, mime, musician and photographic artist, best known for being featured as J’Quille and a Mon Calamari Officer in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi , playing The Alien in the cult Sci Fi/horror movie Xtro and for being half of the Tik and Tok duo that popularized robotic mime in the UK in the 1980s.

Tim is the author of two published books of memoirs: Falling Upwards—Scenes From A Life and Continuum—The Star Wars Phenomenon As Experienced From The Inside. He also has short stories in three horror anthologies edited by Dean M Drinkel and published by Western Legends Press: namely The Bestiarum Vocabulum, Phobophobias and The Grimorium Verum. Tim has also contributed articles for Forbes magazine and the Film Review Annual.

A little bit later than planned, as this morning has been very busy already, but here’s a link to the very latest review of Stephen Volk’s Leytonstone, the second in his ‘Dark Masters’ trilogy, and the follow-on from 2013’s Whitstable. As hinted at in the post heading, this one appears on Anthony Watson’s Dark Musings review blog – you can read the write-up HERE.

Monday morning, chilly but sunny, and we have a new review of Stephen Volk’s Leytonstone to tell you about – it’s from Jex Winship’s delightfully titled Sparks in Electrical Jelly blog, and you can read it HERE.

Yes, the much anticipated sequel to the British Fantasy Award-winning novella The Nine Deaths of Dr. Valentine by John Llewellyn Probert is now officially available to pre-order. Once again it features the deadly but ever so slightly deranged Dr. Valentine, accompanied this time by an unnamed but beautiful female assistant, and once more DCI Longdon has been called back from semi-retirement to have his patience tested and to apprehend the man. Will he succeed this time, or has the mad doctor got even MORE tricks up his sleeves?

Two years ago, a series of horrific murders shocked the city of Bristol. These were killings so elaborate in their planning, and so outrageous in their execution, that they made national headlines for weeks.

Now the journalists who wrote the stories behind those headlines are beginning to die, in ways even more gruesome, even more flamboyant, and even more unbelievable than the murders they themselves wrote about at such length in the national dailies all those months ago.

Dr Edward Valentine, brilliant surgeon and the maniac responsible for the Nine Deaths, has not been seen since he escaped the police following a final confrontation.

Has he returned?

Is he now intent on punishing the British tabloid press that he feels has misrepresented him?

Has he chosen as the most appropriate method of punishment that most British of institutions, the Hammer Horror film?

And how many times will the Hammer of Dr Valentine strike before he can be stopped?

The cover, by JD Busch, is being worked on even as we speak – the sketches are absolutely brilliant, so you can anticipate artwork just as eye-catching as the one on The Nine Deaths was…

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Spectral Press

Publisher, on a quarterly basis, of very limited edition signed and numbered single story chapbooks in a quality presentation, and devoted to ghostly/supernatural tales. Also publishes regular novellas and a Christmas Ghost Story Annual every December.

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